10 PC Apps to Increase Your Business Productivity

We are all creatures of habits, and it's no different when it comes to software. We tend to rely on the same tools and processes. However, a lack of awareness about better tools is usually a primary reason. For that reason, we've drawn up a list of 10 indispensable PC applications to help bolster your business productivity.

7-Zip File Archiver

7-Zip is an open source file archiver that was created to support the 7z archive format for a high compression ratio. Moreover, it also supports a range of popular formats such as ZIP, TAR, BZIP2, GZIP -- the latter three makes 7-Zip perfect for Window users who need to work with Linux. In addition, the highly-versatile 7-Zip app will extract an even larger list of file formats that includes ARJ, ISO, MSI, RAR and VHD. 7-Zip is available for various platforms; the Win32 version integrates with the Windows Shell, and also provides self-extracting capability for 7z format.

Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the gold standard in speech recognition software for the PC. Indeed, the company's technology is widely licensed and deployed, and can be found in some of the most popular smartphones. For the desktop version of the software, Nuance goes beyond speech recognition by integrating simple voice shortcuts for common tasks, with support for most popular productivity software such as Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer and many other Windows applications. Other features in the Premium version include out-of-the-box transcription feature and Text-to-Speech technology that can read on-screen text aloud.

FileZilla FTP Client

The FileZilla Client is a fast and robust FTP client with an intuitive graphical user interface that is available on multiple platforms such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Moreover, the application supports FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and the SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), and comes with drag and drop support. Other capabilities include FTP resume, configurable transfer speed limits and the ability to transfer files that are larger than 4GB. FileZilla Client is open source software.

Irfanview Graphic Viewer

Irfanview is a fast, compact graphical viewer for the Windows operating system. The primary strength of this app lies in its capability to view practically any media formats under the sun, including formats such as Multipage TIF, Photoshop PSD and even the RAW formats for most digital cameras. Moreover, Irfanview is able to save in many of the most popular formats, effectively making it a handy graphic converter tool. Other features such as advanced batch processing and basic image editing makes it is a must-have tool for your software arsenal. Irfanview is freeware when used for non-commercial or educational purposes; commercial users should contact the developer for prices here.

Notepad++ Text Editor

Billed as a Notepad replacement, Notepad++ is a free source code editor that is especially popular with programmers and IT professionals. Aside from its small memory footprint, much of the popularity behind Notepad++ can be attributed to its support of plugins for which a thriving community has sprung up andcreated a large number of plugins that dramatically expand upon its basic capabilities. Indeed, the default Notepad++ installation itself comes with several plugins such as a Spell Checker, a plugin giving it FTP capabilities - and a plugin manager for downloading additional plugins. A comprehensive list of plugins can be viewed here.

ResophNotes for Simplenote

ResophNotes is a simple freeware app that you can use to access text-only notes stored on the Simplenote cloud service. Obviously, the value of ResophNotes resides in the fact that Simplenote is supported on various platforms such as Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and even the BlackBerry PlayBook. Created for the Windows operating system, ResophNotes is a robust application that supports most of what Simplenote offers such as tags, global search and sync with the Simplenote service. There are two versions of ResophNotes available, a desktop version, and a portable version for use with a USB flash drive.

TechSmith Snagit

Ever wondered if there's a faster way to speed up the creation of those repetitive screenshots for your next training PowerPoint, or how to capture a long webpage that extends right off your screen? Well, chances are that Snagit by TechSmith will prove to be a huge timesaver for you. The software supports more than 40 ways to capture screenshots of applications or selected areas of the desktop, while an included editor makes short work of minor editing work such as drawing attention to specific areas, or adding watermarks and markups. Snagit is available on Windows and Mac.

Trillian Instant Messenger

The Trillian Instant Messenger (IM) is a multi-IM application that runs on the major platforms such as Windows, Mac, iOS (iPhone), Android and BlackBerry. For tablets that support flash or for a quick chat at a cybercafé, there is even a version that runs on the Web browser. Just about all IM networks are supported, and its makers prides themselves on the speed and low memory footprint of its client, which the company says is always built "technology native" to support each OS. Moreover, Trillian supports a "continuous chat" feature that allows a conversation to be picked up from another device without missing a beat--recent chat history is synchronized between all devices.

Slysoft Virtual Clonedrive

The Virtual CloneDrive by SlySoft is a free utility that emulates a physical CD/DVD drive using common image formats such as ISO, BIN, CCD files. These image files can be located on the local hard disk drive or over a network drive; up to 8 virtual drives are supported on a PC at the same time. Compared with other software offering similar functionality, Virtual CloneDrive is robust and is completely ad free.

dBpoweramp Music Converter

dBpoweramp Music Converter is a Swiss army knife for effortless conversion between among audio formats. The software is work with multiple file formats such as mp3, mp4, m4a (iTunes), Windows Media Audio (WMA), Ogg Vorbis, AAC, FLAC, Apple Lossless (ALAC)--just to name a few. In addition, multi CPU encoding support, batch conversion capabilities and the ability to apply a whole range of DSP effects that includes advanced DirectX and VST plugins makes it unmatched in terms of features and versatility.